“An all singing, all dancing, all tennis playing new music theatre work to be unveiled in Birmingham” by Roderick Dungate.

An all singing, all dancing, all tennis playing new music theatre work to be unveiled in Birmingham.

A unique music theatre work, Fairlight, is under development in Birmingham and is to be trialled this month, July. It looks at the issue of queer invisibility in today’s sport. Composer Michael Wolters and librettist, Alexandra Taylor discovered that lawn tennis was invented in Birmingham by two men, Harry Gem and Auguro Perera; they had a close relationship which spanned many years.

This was in the mid 19th Century. I am intrigued how the two creators came to imagine that these two, Harry a prosperous member of the Establishment, and Auguro, a prosperous Spanish immigrant merchant, were in a relationship that may have been more than just good friends. Taylor takes her inspiration from what happens today: “At this time there are no playing out gay tennis players. So when we were told this story of the origins of tennis being created by these two ‘very good friends’ comparing it to our knowledge of present day tennis, where there’s nobody, and the Fairlight thing, all these connections start to gel.”

The men’s relationship, as explored in Fairlight, then, is an artistic conceit. With purpose.

What is the ‘Fairlight’ thing? Auguro lived in a large house in Edgbaston, Birmingham, called Fairlight. He and Harry met at a racquets club and Harry went regularly to Auguro’s to play croquet on the lawn. They became almost inseparable friends. Together the two men developed a game which mixed the rules of racquet’s and pelota (a Spanish game) that they could play outdoors with little equipment; tennis was born. They introduced friends to the new game and it caught on.

They moved their activity to the Edgbaston Archery Club as an extra and the club created courts when it relocated to its current location. This is where Fairlight is to be trialled; the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis club is the oldest, still existing, tennis blub.

Later on, Harry moved to Leamington and, low and behold, Auguro followed. They started the Leamington Tennis Club, where they formalised the rules for tennis.

This is all interesting enough but why would an audience want to come to see it? Wolters becomes passionate in his response. “A few years ago I lost faith in creating art for art’s sake, it never sat well with me. I’ve also become much more angry about the state of the world and especially about being a gay man in the world. I can’t accept that hate crimes are on the rise again … And you have trans people, and the same arguments that were rolled out against gay people are now being rolled out against trans people. So I feel really angry.”

We note that these issues are presently being weaponized in increasingly over-heated and cruel debates. In fact, they are built into many models in sports and popular culture, in which you have to have, according to Wolters: "fit women, a fast car, you have to be homophobic and have nice trainers.”

While this is frequently true, there are artists and sports people working against these ideas, as Taylor points out: “There are people, queer rap artists who are now battling against that.”

The form of Fairlight enables the historical story and modern debates to powerfully reflect in each other.

The whole is to be performed on a lawn tennis court. There are songs and duets from Harry and Auguro, both in 1860s tennis gear. ‘Umpires’ read accounts of historical trials for homosexual men, the original rules for tennis are read out, contemporary interviews with sports people are shown on screens and four men play tennis, for real.

I ask if the invented language for the two men is an issue. Taylor thinks not. “The word love was around in the Victorian times, but how often do you sit around and talk, about, label your relationships? They say ‘my friend’."  And the Songs talk about friendship, love, feeling at home. There are 13 songs in all, the last one is called Leamington, in which Auguro wonders whether or not he should follow Harry to Leamington.

I ask Wolters about the music style. Wolters explained that one of the earliest samplers was called the Fairlight. One of the samples was based on a Stravinsky Firebird chord which became known as the ‘Orchestra Hit’; here’s the sound: (https://youtu.be/XBXhnq4lQNU?si=7qN41OFUrdu29V00). This chord appears all over the music of the 70s and 80s. And to prove it, here is a link to the Pet Shop boys: (https://youtu.be/jFAA6Z_YIEM?si=jpkCeAhDIpnUSthK).

So this Fairlight connection gave Wolters the idea of a 70s/80s feel to the songs. Though they are not consciously written in that Hi-NRG (high energy) style.

But the sampled sounds of the Fairlight sampler really inform the work, as does, of course, Auguro’s Fairlight home.

There is one more historical link to this present work. While in Leamington Harry wrote an operetta, Pickwick v Bardell, based on the trial in the Pickwick Papers (Dickens). According to records it was extremely well received when performed by the Leamington Choral Society in 1881. Taylor has found a copy of the libretto and the structure of Fairlight mirrors the structure of the operetta. But Taylor, despite gargantuan efforts has not managed to find the score. It may be out there somewhere …

This promise’s to be a truly original work with something important to say. But with so many disparate elements to weave together the two creators are up front that they do not know if it will work in tis exact form or whether changes will be needed. It is a vision.

To this end, part of Fairlight is to be trialled at the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Club, less than a mile away from where tennis was invented. Date is Saturday 20 July; tickets can be booked on Eventbrite, though not many left.

Following this, the aim is to tour the music theatre work to tennis courts next year linking with the professional tennis calendar. Links have already been made with the Lawn Tennis Association and in particular with Pride In Tennis, a campaigning organisation within the sport.

Here are a few useful links:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fairlight-tickets-899787979067

https://www.prideintennis.org.uk/

Fairlight - An electropop musical about queer invisibility in tennis.

2025 marks the 160th anniversary of the first ever recorded match of lawn tennis.
We are celebrating this landmark historical event by exploring one of the biggest issues in the modern game - queer invisibility.

'Fairlight' sets the origin story of lawn tennis in a queer context, shining a light on the absence of any openly LGBT+ professional male players. It contrasts historic and current stories, inviting audiences to form their own interpretation of tennis's seemingly straight history.